Tag Archives: hard work

In high school, I had a chemistry teacher named Sister Silvis. She was hard. She was tough. At times, I even felt that she was MEAN. Chemistry was difficult and distressing. I DIDN’T GET IT. The homework took hours, excruciating hours of studying for tests, completing assignments and muddling through lab reports. Yuck!!!

Did you ever have a teacher or a class, which you initially felt this way about?

As long as I felt incapable and powerless as I sat in Sister Silvis’s class, I despised chemistry. As long as I felt angry about the injustice of having to take such a class, I was miserable. As long as I lived in fear of what chemistry grade would show up on my report card, I was scared of Sister Silvis.

I’ve found that every circumstance can be a teacher. Sometimes when we are dealing with a really challenging circumstance, it feels like we definitely didn’t sign-up for this circumstance’s class. Sometimes we definitely feel we don’t have any interest in learning what our challenging circumstance has to teach us. In the middle of this process of struggling with our circumstance, there is often a learning curve, which may involve us being angry, frustrated, depressed, thinking “Why me?”, and feeling generally miserable.

Sometimes the best thing we learn from a challenging circumstance is to take steps that shorten the duration of the circumstance and to focus on choosing different circumstances in the future.

If I hadn’t had concern about what my parents and my classmates would say, I probably would have dropped Sister Silvis’s class in the first week.

On the other hand, sometimes we learn not to judge the worth of a situation by how we initially feel about it.

If I had dropped Sister Silvis’s class, I would have missed out on exploring chemistry, which to my great surprise, I eventually found to be a fascinating subject. And I would have missed out on learning from a very wise woman who I discovered to be an outstanding teacher.

Once I started understanding chemistry and being in awe that I could understand chemistry, I began to feel appreciation for this class. On some days I almost even liked chemistry. Through this learning process, I came to deeply respect and love Sister Silvis.

Bless the Memory of Sister Silvis

Game of the Day

Have you ever felt angry and depressed as you dealt with a challenging circumstance, and decided to take steps to shorten the duration of this circumstance?

Have you ever at first felt angry and depressed as you dealt with a challenging circumstance, only to later learn to deal with this circumstance in a way that gave you a sense of confidence and even joy?

How do you decide when to take steps to shorten the duration of a challenging circumstance?

How do you decide when to stick a tough circumstance out with the intention of learning what it has to teach and maybe even learning to find joy within it?

Jason Freeman is a professional writer, and a one-of-a-kind public speaker. He is the founder and CEO of Heroic Yes! Productions. Jason has an MFA in Poetry from the University of Nebraska. He knows the pain of perceiving one’s life through a lens of limitation and also the thrill of moving beyond that mindset. For more information on Jason’s powerful message, or to book him to present to your organization, go to www.HeroicYesProductions.com.

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